To Put Her Back Together 4/4
Title: To Put Her Back Together 4/4
Character/Pairing: Skye x Carter
Word Count: 9223
Genre: angst/romance
Rating: (G-NC-17) R
Warning: violence, sexual situations, trigger warning for discussion of rape
Spoiler Alert: If you've seen the show, you're good.
Summary: A year after the portal is destroyed, Skye is still being stalked by Lucas and Carter has vowed to kill him. It's the big finish guys! There's quite a bit of angsty here along with a final fight. Plus a fluffy well, as fluffy as these two can be, flash forward with bb. awwwww.
Author’s Notes: I absolutely must thank Stefanny for bugging me about this fic because it never would have been finished without her. Kay for the original prompt even though I may have cursed her at times. XD Also my loves Ali and Megan who really aren't even in this fandom but helped me immensely with story and fight scenes (because omg those fight scenes are difficult!) And of course, thanks to everyone who took time to read. I was very sure this story was just something Stef would read so to know that someone else likes it, that makes me giddy. :) As per usual, I do not have a true beta so if you catch any grammatical errors, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
When morning rolled around he was happy to see Skye was in a better mood. She smiled as she kissed his chest and ran a hand down him. “You have an appointment with Dr. Shannon today,” he said grabbing her hand as it went for his pants. “As much as I’d love to take advantage of the mood you’re in, I need you to talk to her today. Are you going to be okay talking to her?”
“No,” she said seriously but his concerned face must have propelled her forward. “I don’t want to, but she’s right, I need to. I’m a mess emotionally and if that’s the only thing I can fix and have some control over, well, at least I can do that for myself.”
“Do you want me here? When you talk to her?” he asked cautiously. He didn’t really want to be around for it, but if she wanted him, nothing could make him leave her, even his churning stomach. She shook her head, though.
“God no,” she said quickly. “The last person I want around is you.” He narrowed his eyes and she smiled humorlessly. “You told Jim Shannon you wouldn’t kill Lucas. If you sit here with me, all you’re going to want to do is rip his throat out. I want to kill him and I haven’t even…” she stalled, biting her lip. “It’s just not something you should sit through.”
He kissed her forehead softly. “What about your mom?”
“No, I don’t,” again she paused. “Just Dr. Shannon. I’ll be alright.”
“It’s okay if you want someone here, your mom would at least be less likely to go on a killing spree.” He was glad to see her smile at the joke but again she shook her head.
“I’ll be fine.”
After breakfast, Dr. Shannon came in. “Are you doing alright this morning?”
“As well as I can be.” Skye pulled her hair back into a ponytail as Carter cleaned up around the bed and helped her get comfortable before offering the chair to Dr. Shannon.
“I’m going to go, I’ll be…” he shrugged his shoulders because he didn’t really know here he’d be. “I’ll be around.” She grabbed his hand and he leaned over her to kiss her. “I can stay, if you need me to,” he whispered as he leaned his forehead against hers, she shook her head again.
“No, I’m alright. Just…”
“This doesn’t change anything about you or us,” he whispered. “I don’t care about whatever happened. I don’t think less of you and you are strong enough to handle this. You’re better than him and he doesn’t control any part of you.” She nodded and he saw her resolve strengthen. She wiped a tear from her eye and swallowed.
“Don’t get into trouble.”
“Me? I never find trouble?” he joked and she rolled her eyes.
He stood outside the room a minute. The door wasn’t quite closed and he couldn’t stop himself from listening.
“Where do you want to start?” Dr. Shannon asked.
“Might as well start when he took me,” she answered. “It was cold and Greta was sick. I’d gone to help her since Carter was gone. He was out hunting. There had been a pack of carnos that were testing the limits of the camp at night. He’d been gone a few days actually.” He heard Skye take a deep breath and continue. “I checked on my mom, then I went back to our room. I guess if I’d stayed with my mom that night, instead of going back…”
“Don’t second guess yourself, Skye, it won’t help,” Dr. Shannon said sincerely.
“Anyways, I walked into the room and it was dark, he was in the shadows, I just remember the creepy smile, all teeth, worse than a dinosaur.”
She started to cry and Carter knew he needed to stop listening. It was just making him angry. Pushing away from the door, he swiftly headed for the exit, but he bumped square into Reynolds.
“Damn, Straight-laced, look where you’re walking, will ya?” He pushed against Reynolds’ shoulder but the soldier refused to budge.
“Stop being such a bastard and do the same,” he retorted. Carter’s fists clenched and he swallowed a growl.
“The mood I’m in right now, I will hit you and you will hurt, just fucking move.” A woman holding a child gasped at the scene and presumably the language. Reynolds apologized like the pussy he was but Carter just continued towards the door.
“You going to run around the colony cursing and pushing people over?” Reynolds followed him out the hospital and down the stairs. “Because I can’t let you do that.”
“Did Shannon tell you I needed to be followed? I bought off on his idiotic and cruel plan so I won’t be trying to kill Lucas today, I don’t need a chaperone or a guard.” Carter bitched over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.
“Where do you get off being such an ass hat?” Reynolds caught up with him. Carter stopped and turned to face him, his hands itching to hit. If they were in his territory, in his camp, this would never happen. On the rare chance anyone tried to mouth off to him, they were on the ground before the insult was fully formed. He pressed his lips together tightly and clenched his fists again, glaring and slowly shaking his head.
“Since I can’t hit Lucas, I’m more than willing to take out all this aggression on you, Straight-laced, you might want to keep moving so I don’t,” he spoke low and slowly, his jaw tense. But Reynolds seemed to be encouraged by the threats.
“Like you could even bruise me,” he said arrogantly. “But I tell you what, let’s go find out, I’ve got time to kill and I’m sure there are plenty of guys in the gym that want to watch someone get their ass kicked.”
“Fine, but I hope you don’t mind when I beat you in front of your men, because I will.” Reynolds laughed without humor and Carter shook his head. This was going to be fun.
Reynolds led the way to a gym that held punching bags, climbing ropes, weight machines, treadmills and all the sorts of things that Carter remembered from junior high. He bet they played dodge ball on the weekends, too.
Carter followed as he was led into an area clearly meant for sparring. He rolled his shoulders and moved his head back and forth a minute while Reynolds emptied his pockets.
Standing in the middle of the area, Carter was ready, the adrenaline started to pump and soon enough, Reynolds was lunging towards him. He blocked two attempts easily and rolled his eyes. “Who taught you how to hit, your girlfriend?”
Carter easily landed a punch on the other man’s jaw as he was distracted by the trash talk. He shook his head to clear it and glared. “Mock all you want but she can hit harder than you.”
With a chuckle and a raised eyebrow, Carter nodded. “Is that so? Guess that might be true, I’m more of a legs man.” He kicked out but Reynolds caught his foot and twisted, Carter took advantage of the momentum and flipped his whole body, barely pushing a kick against Reynolds’ chest and landed on two feet easily. “Wait, I know who taught you to fight.”
The soldier rubbed at his chest where Carter’s foot had made contact and threw him a look. “Lieutenant Washington, and if you say one word against her I’ll let all these guys watching jump your ass.”
Carter threw up his arms. “Wasn’t gonna, that woman could fight, she bested me once, if I’d had another chance, I’d have gotten her, but I won’t lie, I was bruised after she and I scuffled.”
Reynolds ducked low and came at him swiftly, grabbing at his legs and tossing him over. He rolled quickly to right himself and smirked at the younger man. “That’s all you got, Straight-laced? I could do this shit in my sleep.”
At that, Reynolds kicked his own foot but Carter blocked it with his forearm. “Carter,” Jim Shannon hollered from the other end of the gym. Carter turned his head a half second to glance at Shannon and when he turned back the soldier was right in front of him, he knocked his forehead against Carter’s and he landed on the floor.
“Will the two of you break it up for a minute, geez,” the Sherriff said as he walked to the two men. Reynolds offered Carter a hand and a smirk. He took the hand and shook his head but he was impressed by the kid, he hadn’t expected the head butt. As Shannon stood in front of them, Reynolds’ countenance instantly shifted from cocky to nervous hamster and Carter side eyed him confused until he cottoned on.
“Oh, right, you’re fucking his daughter.”
Both men glared at Carter and Jim spoke slowly. “Never use any combination of those words together in front of me.”
Carter shrugged unbothered by the harsh tone. “I’m not fucking your daughter…Ow, Straight-laced,” he said perturbed after Reynolds smacked his chest with the back of his hand.
“We’re going to go ahead this afternoon,” Jim said changing the subject. “We’ve got the information we need.”
Even though he knew it was a possibility, the truth that Lucas raped Skye still slammed hard into him making Reynolds’ smack seem like a friendly cuddle. His body tensed and his stomach rolled but he did his best to keep his face stoic.
“She’s asking for you,” Jim said watching him intently.
Carter didn’t bother saying anything. What would he have said? He just ran.
By the time he was coming up on their room in the hospital his lungs burned and he had to take a moment to compose himself outside the door. Again, keeping his stoic face, he entered slowly.
Inside, he saw that Deb was sitting in the chair that Dr. Shannon had previously occupied. She held Skye’s hand and smiled when he came to sit on the foot of the bed. “Alright sweetie, I’m going to go, I’ll come by in a bit to sit with you some more,” Deb said as she stood. “Someone just dropped a plex on my bed and you know, there’s the most wonderful book on it, I’ll come by and read it with you. You’ll love it. I know for sure.”
Deb placed a kiss on Skye’s forehead and then squeezed Carter’s arm as she turned to go. He nodded and turned back to Skye. Crawling up the bed, he took her in his arms and held her. She didn’t speak for a few minutes and he didn’t mind. He stroked her hair and waited.
“You smell.” He felt the words against his chest and chuckled. “Did you get into trouble?”
“Nah,” he replied, his lips against her forehead as he spoke. “That soldier, the one that is going to marry the Shannon girl, he and I did a couple of rounds of sparring.”
“Oh God,” she said dramatically. “You didn’t break him, did you? Maddy will be pissed if you broke Mark.”
“Actually no, the kid isn’t terrible at it. He got in a good head butt.” He moved his hand up and down her arm soothingly and he felt her relax in his arms. “Do you feel any better? Worse? Different?”
Glad that she didn’t tense again, he waited for her to speak. “I dunno, I feel…raw.”
“I’m sorry,” he said feeling guilty. He wasn’t sure he’d ever stop feeling guilty over the fact he wasn’t there, he couldn’t stop it, even when Lucas was dead, Carter imagined he’d still feel inadequate.
“If it’s not my fault, it’s certainly not yours,” Skye said strongly, but Carter just shrugged. She paused again and he thought maybe that was all she’d say about it, but she started again and her words cut through him. “The things he did to me…I don’t know why you want me.”
“Hey, I will always want you.” He lifted her chin so he could look her in the eyes. “Whatever he did, whatever happened to you, it doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you.” The tears formed in her eyes, but she didn’t cry. “It is okay to cry, you know,” he said but she shook her head.
“I’m tired of it. My eyes are sore and I don’t want to do it anymore.” She was firm and he couldn’t help the fact that he was proud. Certain parts of her were still hurt or sick or not quite put together properly, like a puzzle with a piece askew, but he could see it was changing. Being here, talking to people, having her mother well, these little things were causing a shift in Skye.
“Okay.”
“You really stink,” she said after a few more minutes of silence.
“Princess, I’m offended. You don’t like my man musk?” he teased and she laughed.
“Please never say that again.”
“What? Man musk?” he repeated doing the opposite of what she’d asked.
“Yeah, stop calling it that,” Skye replied smiling. “It’s funny though, we’ve been here and all showered and clean like normal people, I almost forgot.”
“You forgot that we get stinky and don’t just have running water? Spoiled.”
“I know, I know.” She held a hand over her eyes in embarrassment. He moved it and kissed her softly.
“We should stay here,” he said when pulled away from her lips. Her eyes grew wide and he chuckled. “Your eyeballs are going to dry out like that.”
“Shut up,” she said as she rolled her eyes. “You don’t want to stay. You hate it here.”
“But it’s not about me,” he said running his fingers along her jaw line. “We did it my way and it made you sick,” at that she tried to speak but he covered her mouth. “And stinky, poor Princess didn’t have running water or air conditioning.” Skye bit one of the fingers that covered her mouth but Carter didn’t remove his hand, just gave her a wolfish grin. “Don’t bite if you can’t follow through, baby.”
She pushed his hand away and shook her head. “Jackass,” she mumbled before returning to the more serious conversation. “We don’t have to stay here, I know you think you don’t belong here.”
“Things change.” He shrugged. “Your mom deserves to stay here, even when you’re better, Dr. Shannon wants to be able to monitor you and the baby and then the baby, he doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the jungle. The gates and the steady stream of food, those two things alone are things I can’t provide for us easily if we go back.”
“But…” she tried but even she knew his arguments were solid though it meant a lot to him that she was concerned about his reaction. “You’ll go stir crazy and you hate Taylor.”
“Well, Dr. Shannon already offered me a job.”
“The last place you’d want to work is here, in a building all day long,” she said with narrowed eyes.
“Not here,” he explained. “They need a combat medic, since Washington died they haven’t been able to fill the position. Apparently my little vaccination routine yesterday was better than a job interview.”
“Mira isn’t going to be happy,” Skye offered.
“She won’t even miss me.” He looked up at the wall. That might have been a lie, but he didn’t really care. Mira was not his concern, taking care of his family was. “Besides, Taylor is on some good drugs, he’s willing to open the colony to anyone from camp if they want to come back.”
“Those are some good drugs, then again, the colony needs people, without the portal, this place could easily die out if they don’t make an effort. Do you think anyone would come back?”
Carter shrugged. “Don’t know, but I’ll take the information to Mira,” he paused and put his hand on her belly. “How’s Junior handling all of this?”
‘We are not naming him Carter Jr.”
“You’re right, a better name would be Olaf,” he said with a grin. She shook her head.
“I pity this child,” she said before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep in his arms. He picked up the plex on the table and flipped through more of the medical texts. Might as well brush up on any new information.
After a few hours, Jim knocked on the door. Carter got up and tucked the blanket around a still sleeping Skye. His hair stood on end when he thought about what he was about to do, but Jim was right, this might be the only way. He brushed some hair off her forehead and walked out the door. Jim nodded at him but both men stayed silent. Walking out, he waved at Deb, she didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t stupid, he figured she might have an idea, especially with the sober faces he and Jim made. She grabbed a plex and headed back to Skye’s room.
Before they walked into the cell in the brig, Jim finally spoke. “I’m going to let you hit him a couple of times, because I don’t think he’ll buy it if I don’t.” Carter bit the inside of his cheek and Jim continued, “but can you stick to his gut? If you knock out his teeth, its going to be tricky for him to tell us anything don’t you think?”
“Fine,” he agreed.
“You know what you’re going to say?” Jim asked. “You ready?”
“Not really a thing you’re ever ready for,” Carter said shortly. Jim gave him a sympathetic look but Carter brushed him off and took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
When they walked in the door, Lucas didn’t even raise his head. He was seated, hands restrained in front of him, just staring at the wall.
“You sick mother fucker,” Carter yelled. He walked over to Lucas, lifted him up roughly by the arm, and hit him solidly in the belly. Lucas doubled over and Carter pulled him up again. He put his face close to his and glared. Lucas’ face remained blank. “So you can’t get a woman to sleep with you so you steal one away, rape her, and you can’t even give her the common courtesy of protection?”
Lucas grinned until the last part of the sentence sunk in. Carter hit him again, this time in the kidneys. “You knew she didn’t want you so you thought maybe that would convince her?” He pushed Lucas just enough to make him sway. He tried not to think about what he was about to do, he thought back to Skye saying how raw she felt, and that’s when he realized all this time, he’d felt the same way. The whole situation, his whole world for the past six months had stripped him raw.
He leaned close to Lucas’ ear and spoke slowly, “Or maybe it was me, did you think I wouldn’t want her if she was carrying your bastard?” Waiting just a moment for effect, Carter took a step back and bore into Lucas with as much hate as he was feeling. They stood there, Lucas trying not to look caught off guard and Carter menacing and angry. After a minute Carter spoke again.
“So now the question is, are you going to let her die carrying your bastard or are you going to tell us how to fix her? Because her body can’t handle it. She’s gone into preterm labor twice now. She’s going to die if you don’t fix her.”
Lucas stared at his feet. The smug smile gone, Carter could practically see the wheels turning in his head. He glanced at Jim and the older man took it as a signal to begin speaking. “We all know you want your father to suffer, and you have no qualms about killing him, but the way you lost your mother…” he trailed off as he walked toward Lucas. “Do you plan on perpetuating the cycle? You want your own son to live life without a mother?”
“This is a trick,” Lucas whispered, clear he was trying to work it out. “I haven’t seen her since she ran away from me, you’re both lying to me.”
Carter looked to Jim again, and then grabbed Lucas’ shoulders and kneed him in the gut. As Lucas stood hunched over, the wind knocked out of him, Carter spoke again. “I wish this was a game, but it’s not.” The Sheriff held up a plex with some doctored DNA tests and shoved it into Lucas’ restrained hands. “You want to check our math? I always wondered, but it was the first test I asked them to run when I got here.” Carter felt a stab of guilt at the statement, as it was more of a half-truth; he’d at least had the decency to wait until Dr. Shannon had run the other more important tests.
“No, I don’t believe you.” Lucas looked firm, unwavering. “I haven’t made her sick, but I can help her, only if you give her back to me!”
“You’re not going anywhere with her!” Carter said frustrated running his hands through his hair before giving Jim a look. Shaking his head he headed for the door. “Don’t think the Sheriff here can keep you safe,” he threw over his shoulder before pushing the door open and continuing, “I will kill you.”
Before he’d left the building, Shannon was catching up with him. “That’s definitely going to work. ‘Tell me and I’m going to kill you.’ I’m so impressed with your interrogation skills.”
“I told you this plan wasn’t going to work.” Carter stopped and turned to him. “It was a shit plan and all it did was piss me off. Waste of my time, waste of your time. He needs to know that no matter how long he stalls, I will come for him, and you can’t stop me. If I have to bury Skye or our baby I will kill him, but in that instance, it won’t be quick, oh no, he will suffer, he will wish he’d told us every last bit of anything in his head because I will make him beg.”
Something shifted in Shannon because he took a step back and he almost looked surprised. Carter knew he hadn’t scared the man with his vicious speech, but he knew it had thrown the Sheriff. The air was thick in the room and it was now that he noticed there were three soldiers, each with a hand reaching for a sidearm, he took a moment to fix each one of them with a glare before turning and leaving.
A few breaths of chilled night air and Carter realized that people must have assumed he was tamed, no longer the man that came to kill Taylor, no longer the scary boogie man hiding in the trees. The colony was ready to accept he and Skye with open arms and he’d been fine with that, until he saw how quickly that would turn. They would stay, they needed to, if Skye survived, but it wouldn’t be easy to just blend in.
That stream of thought led him to his most disturbing idea: Skye’s death or the baby’s. He hadn’t allowed himself to even broach the subject. Six months ago when Lucas had taken her, it had been two days of pure horror, anger, and frustration. But he’d never thought she would be dead. He knew Lucas’ infatuation with her, Carter knew Lucas wouldn’t kill her, but now, now he wasn’t sure she’d survive. It chipped away at him, but the more awful thought was that the baby wouldn’t live. Skye would never recover. Her emotional health was teetering on the edge, that baby tied her to reality and without it, Carter knew it would take more than counseling sessions with Dr. Shannon to bring her back to her former self, if she ever returned.
The swirling thoughts led him not back to the hospital, but to Boylan’s Bar. “I want three shots of the strongest thing you’ve got hiding back there.”
“And how do you intend to pay for that?” Boylan asked smartly. Carter narrowed his eyes. “I’ll start a tab, you’ll have money coming in soon enough,” he said with a shrug. “Hard day?”
Again, he just stared as Boylan poured the shots. Carter downed one. “How come Taylor never threw you out of the gates for working with us?”
“Well, he put me in the brig for a bit, but that’s quite a long story,” Boylan said refilling the first shot, giving Carter a total of four to toss back. He did it quickly without making a face or commenting on the burning in his throat. He wasn’t really into the idea of feeling anything at the moment. Boylan left him to sit while he helped someone else down the bar.
“You!” someone growled next to Carter. He didn’t turn his head, nor did he care who was bothering him. “My arm still hurts from that shot you gave me.”
Ah, yes, the idiot from the vaccinations. Carter turned to him with a smirk, he clapped the guy on the arm where he knew he’d administered the vaccine. “Still hurts, pal?”
Hernandez was flanked by two other soldiers who looked like they were supposed to be intimidating. Problem was, Carter wasn’t disturbed by them at all. Pursing his lips in thought a moment, he nodded and stood up. “Alright, let’s go. This ought to be fun since you three don’t seem to know your fists from your asses.”
All three soldiers furrowed their brows at the outright insult. Hernandez threw the first punch, but Carter blocked it easily, even in his slightly numb and hazy state. Before another punch was attempted, Reynolds stood in between Carter and the other three soldiers.
“I think you three have duty now, don’t you,” he said with authority. The men floundered a moment before Reynolds gave them a hard look while Carter stood behind him irritated.
“That would have been fun, Straight-laced,” he whined. “I wouldn’t have hurt them too badly.”
Reynolds turned to Carter with an amused look. “I’m sure.” He grabbed Carter’s shoulder and pushed him towards the door of the bar. “The last thing I need is three guys in the hospital, Maddy is already working constantly helping Dr. Wallace on some kind of cure for the Commander and Skye, you’d just be hurting your own cause. If Dr. Shannon is patching those guys up, she’s not spending time in the lab.”
Carter frowned. “But you missed the part where I said it would have been fun.”
“I suppose from your demeanor, Jim’s brilliant plan didn’t work.”
“What do you know about that?” Carter asked annoyed.
“I eat dinner at the Shannon’s house almost every night, including last night, I overheard your visit.” Reynolds kept walking and Carter followed, if anything just to avoid going back to the hospital feeling like a failure.
“It was a shit plan.”
“Then how come you’re drinking and starting fights, you must have thought it would work or you wouldn’t be so pissed it didn’t,” he said and Carter wanted to hit the kid for being perceptive.
“I’m done with all this shit, the Sheriff is cramping my style, Skye is still sick, and I can’t even rip off Lucas’ arms and beat him with them. I’ve looked for months for Lucas. It’s been my god damn mission to drain the life from him and now I’m in the thick of things. He’s within my reach but I can’t do anything about it.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” Reynolds said with raised eyebrows and a knowing look. “I get it, if the bastard had done that to Maddy, I’d be the same. But you can’t just kill him. Then she’ll die.”
“I thought your woman along with half the science staff were all working on some way to help them.”
“They are, and they’re the best, but you know he’s smarter.” Reynolds stopped in front of the hospital.
“You keep up these little feelings sharing sessions and I’m going to think you like me, but just so you know, I don’t swing both ways,” Carter said with a raised eyebrow and Reynolds just rolled his eyes. In the distance, Jim Shannon was jogging towards them, Carter’s brow furrowed and Reynolds turned to see what he was looking at.
“Something happened,” he mumbled but Carter’s eyes never left Shannon as he met up with them.
“He changed his mind,” Jim said excitedly. “It worked, he changed his mind.”
Carter stayed stoic. “Are you sure? Maybe he’s decided to start playing games with us?”
“We won’t know if we don’t go back and talk to him,” Shannon said smartly. “Come on, we’re so close, this is going to work.”
He wanted it to work, but still Carter was skeptical. He followed the Sheriff back to the brig anyways. “Are you sure you can’t do this without me?” he finally asked as they made it to the doors. “I’m over talking to this asshole. If I have to see him, I want to be able to kill him.”
Jim Shannon shook his head. “You need to get over that. It’s more believable with you here and you’re not going to kill him. We need him.”
Carter hated it. He hated that they needed Lucas to tell them how to fix this. He hated that Jim Shannon was more concerned about a cure because it affected the colony and not just Skye. Carter was a selfish person and all he cared about was getting Skye well and whole. But Shannon had to stand for more. He had to worry about the welfare of 1000 people but Carter didn’t care.
On top of that he felt helpless. He couldn’t help Skye, he thought bringing her here was the right thing to do, and though it did seem to improve things, he still couldn’t kill Lucas. He wasn’t allowed to torture the truth out of him. Carter didn’t like working within the rules of this place and it was grating on him. But he followed Shannon into the room anyways. If it might help Skye, he had to.
When they entered the room, Lucas looked them both over, his face impassive.
“I want to see her,” Lucas said and Carter scoffed. “I’ll tell you the way to help her, but I will only tell you part of it, then when I see her, when I know that she’s really pregnant, then I’ll tell you the rest.”
Carter shook his head sharply. “No, you can’t see her. You’ve messed with her head enough.” But Jim put a hand on his shoulder. “Why are we messing with this guy?” he whispered. “He’s insane and I’m not letting him near her.”
“If this is what it takes, we do it,” Jim replied. “She’ll be safe. We’ll be right there.” The Sheriff turned back to Lucas. “You can see her, but you don’t get to talk to her, she’s not even going to know you’re there. He’s right, you’ve done enough damage to her.”
He couldn’t help the scowl on his face and the subsequent look he gave the older man, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He was right, this was still their best chance.
“So, start talking then we can take a walk,” Jim continued.
“It’s a designer virus,” Lucas said with a smirk, clearly proud of himself. “It’s invisible, but it reacts to water and food, depending on the person, each reaction is different.”
“And?” Carter asked with narrowed eyes. It was a long shot, but maybe if he could keep him talking they’d get all the information and not have to take him anywhere.
“And you can hear the fix when I see her.” He wished he could slap the smirk off Lucas’ face.
“Aright, let’s go.” Jim grabbed Lucas by the scruff of his neck and Carter followed.
Carter figured at least Skye would be asleep still. He didn’t want her to even get a glimpse of Lucas. He knew it might undo all the progress she’d made emotionally in just a few short days and that would be the worst outcome of this event. Skye might heal physically, but the idea of starting all over emotionally made him angry.
The hospital was quiet. It was just before shift change so the nurses were all hiding, hoping to avoid any last bits of work before they could leave, there were only a few patients anyways. The lights were low so that patients in the main bay could sleep. It was almost eerie and no one seemed to notice that they’d brought a murderer into the building.
Jim halted Lucas just before Skye’s room and Carter went forward to make sure she was indeed asleep. He opened the door quietly and saw her lying on her side, her eyes closed, and breathing steady. Deb wasn’t there; she must have gone back to her bed. Pulling the blinds up on the door, he wished desperately it were a two-way mirror instead of glass. His heart started to pound and his skin itched as his anger mixed with anxiety. Here we go, he thought to himself.
Carter shut the door and nodded at Jim to bring Lucas forward. Where he felt sick and nervous, Lucas looked delightfully demented. A creepy sneer, bright eyes, and an almost giddy step propelled him forward to the window. His hands pressed against the glass, as did his face, like a child looking through a pet store window.
“I want to get closer,” Lucas said, breath fogging an area on the glass.
Both Jim and Carter said, “No,” though Carter’s was more forceful.
“It’s a boy? You said that, right?” Lucas asked Jim, his voice childlike and full of excitement. It made Carter’s hair stand on end. Jim nodded in response. “My blood,” he said quietly. “That’s how I altered the virus. I put my own DNA in it, it was in a small capsule, genius really, obviously.”
Before Carter or Jim could enjoy the fact that their ploy had worked, several alarms sounded; they were coming from Taylor’s room. Dr. Shannon came out of nowhere and was running into the room. Jim followed her without a glance back to Carter or their maniac prisoner. Carter looked towards the room to see several nurses heading into the room as the alarms continued blaring.
He’d only looked away for a second, but when his eyes were back on Lucas, he’d turned to face Carter and his hands, palms up, rammed into his nose so hard it knocked Carter over. Before he could get up, Lucas had locked himself in Skye’s room. Standing up quickly and trying the door he stood in horror as he watched Lucas stroke Skye’s face, she’d woken, probably from the alarms, and she’d already started crying and screaming. Pushing his elbow through the glass of the door quickly, he reached through and opened the door from the other side, not caring that his arm was bleeding from the glass.
“That’s my baby, we’re going to be a family, and you’ll see Bucket, you’ll love me!” Lucas was saying over Skye as she cried and struggled against him as he held her down with tied hands.
Carter pulled his knife from his waist, the one he’d originally taken days ago to kill Lucas. Coming behind Lucas, he went for his neck, but Lucas caught his wrist and turned the knife towards Skye. Twisting as best he could, Carter tried to bring the knife back to Lucas, but Lucas had two hands on his wrist and Carter was trying not to add weight to Skye since Lucas was still on top of her. He pulled his arm far enough out that he could drop it safely away from Skye’s body and pulled Lucas off her. Both fell to the floor and Lucas managed to get his hands around Carter’s neck.
Carter pushed against him, then began clawing at the hands around his neck as his field of vision started to narrow and his lungs burned from lack of oxygen. He realized it was embarrassing, being bested by Lucas like this, and the fact that he was leaving Skye unprotected, he just hoped that Jim Shannon would come to the rescue before Lucas could touch Skye and the baby.
He’d spent all his time protecting them and now he’d failed. His life wasn’t flashing before his eyes. Their lives were. The coy smiles she gave him when he’d kissed her thoroughly, her eyes as she cried, the chances he’d miss. Holding his son, watching him grow and watching Skye recover and become herself again: the woman who didn’t take his shit, the independent one who pushed back. At least they’d be here in Terra Nova, safe.
But just as he had those thoughts, he saw Lucas’ eyes go wide and felt his hands go slack.
Taking in rough breaths, Carter saw Skye plunging the knife into Lucas’ back, over and over again. As carefully as he could, he moved from his spot on the floor and sat up slowly. Skye was still stabbing at an obviously lifeless Lucas with tears streaming down her face.
He made out the words “I hate you!” but mostly it was just incoherent cries, like that of an injured animal. He let her continue until his own breathing had returned to normal and then he carefully approached her. She was kneeling so he scooted himself over to her.
“Princess.” The knife still went in and out of Lucas’ back as though she didn’t hear him. “Skye,” he said a little louder. She turned quickly, her face covered in tears and splatters of Lucas’ blood, her eyes wild. He waited for the moment when she’d return to reality and was relieved when he saw the recognition light in her. She dropped the knife and hiccupping and crying, she fell into his open arms.
“It’s over now,” he said hoping the words soothed her. Before he’d been worried about how she’d handle seeing him, now he didn’t know what the effects of the encounter would be, but Carter hoped that Skye killing Lucas might be a sort of detachment, closure. Maybe now she could take control and feel stronger now. “You saved yourself. You did that and now it’s over.”
The crying didn’t abate; instead, it became louder. Skye looked up at him with panic in her eyes. “Oh God, it hurts,” she said between sobs.
Carter realized it could be any number of things: Lucas had been on top of her, he himself had dropped a knife out of the way of her, but he could have missed, she might have hurt herself with the physical force it took to stab a man as many times as she just had.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” he asked concerned but she just continued crying. As though on cue, Dr. Shannon came into the room and stopped abruptly at the sight of Lucas’ body.
“You need to look at her, she’s in pain,” Carter said craning his head to see the doctor behind him.
“We need to get her up so I can examine her,” she replied looking away from the body on the floor. He picked her up with some effort, the tingles in his arm reminded him he’d probably cut it on the glass badly enough to require stitches or at least some glue. “I’ll ask you what happened later, I suppose.” Elisabeth added when he’d gotten Skye on the bed.
He shrugged and as the doctor examined Skye, Carter held her hand and wiped the tears and blood from her face. “It’s the baby again, isn’t it?” he asked the doctor but directed the question at Skye. She nodded and Dr. Shannon sighed.
“Her blood pressure is through the roof as is her heart rate, she’s going into shock.” Dr. Shannon looked at the monitors again. “We may need to sedate her, I don’t think medication is going to stop this if her body can’t relax.”
Skye shook her head furiously and tried to speak through her tears. “Don’t, please don’t sedate me, I don’t…I don’t want to feel like that…”
Carter looked to the doctor concerned then back to Skye. “You need to calm down, then, deep breaths, think about boring things, I dunno, rainbows and puppies and shit.” She narrowed her eyes at him and he tried to smile. “I’m not the best person to calm someone down, okay? I enjoy riling people up.” Skye began taking deep breaths and Carter bent over her belly. “Listen kid, we are not ready for you yet, okay? I know things seem exciting out here, but they aren’t, trust me, it’s a snore. Your momma needs to stop being sick and that would be a lot easier for her if you just stayed put, alright, Junior?”
The pep talk had its desired affect as Skye tried not to laugh and her tears slowed. “We’re not naming him Junior, I don’t care how much you push it.” He smiled and she shook her head.
“See, that’s one more reason not to make a break for it, kid, we’ll just end up calling you ‘kid’ for a few months until we can decide on the inevitable.”
“It’s not inevitable,” Skye groaned in between her breathes.
“Alright,” Dr. Shannon interrupted. “Keep breathing deeply for me, okay? I’m going to give you something that will hopefully stop the labor again, but you need to keep your heart rate down. You have to stay calm.”
“And then you need to start working on the antidote,” Carter said suddenly remembering. When the doctor looked confused, he tilted his head towards the body on the floor. “He told us it was in his blood, a designer virus meant to react to food and water.”
At that revelation Dr. Shannon called for a nurse. “Get that out of here,” she said in reference to Lucas’ body. “Take 10 vials of blood, as well, and send it right over to the lab.”
“Carter,” Jim Shannon called from the doorway.
“Go get her mom and then I’ll talk to you,” he said not even looking at the perturbed man. Carter continued to stand by Skye, calming her as best he could and when Deb came he was relieved. “You’re probably better at this anyways,” he said in passing to Deb. He turned to Skye before he left to assure he wasn’t going far.
“What the hell happened?” Shannon asked when Carter met him outside the room.
“You tell me,” Carter snapped losing the relaxed demeanor he’d put on for Skye. “You went chasing after your fearless leader and his health and when I turned back to Lucas he popped me in the nose hard enough to knock me over and lock himself in their with her,” he said angry.
The Sheriff had the sense to soften his stance. “So you killed him?”
“No.” Shannon looked confused before he figured it out. “That explains why his back looks like ground beef. Why didn’t you stop her, she must have stabbed him more than 10 times.”
“I was trying to catch my breath, the bastard tried to strangle me,” Carter explained rubbing his neck at the memory. “I finally pulled her off him, but it was a delicate situation, I didn’t want her coming at me with that knife, she was hysterical.”
“Well, I guess there’s nothing to be done about it, now.”
“You think?” he bit out. “Taylor survive?”
“He coded but Elisabeth brought him back, she needs to get to work on that cure, I don’t think Taylor will last much longer without it,” he said.
“Hopefully that’s it and all will be well soon.” Carter looked back to the room. “I’m going back in there.”
Jim nodded and Carter gave him a final look before going to sit next to Skye. She was better, her vitals were normal, her contractions had stopped and he thanked the doctor and every deity he could think of that this battle seemed to be over.
Someone was poking Carter awake. He hated to be poked awake, but if someone was poking him, that meant it was Skye. She knew how much he hated it and did it anyways. Poke, poke, poke right on his chest. His brow furrowed and he growled, “You wanna keep that finger, Princess?”
“Ha, like you’d do anything,” Skye teased. “Open your eyes doofus, Dr. Shannon has good news.”
At that he did open his eyes. “What time is it?”
“It’s 5:30, but I thought you’d want to hear this,” Dr. Shannon said from the foot of the bed. “We’ve manufactured something we think is going to work.”
Carter sat up and smiled wide at Skye who returned the smile and then he turned back to the doctor. “Well, you going to give it to her or what?”
“We’re going to give it to Commander Taylor first,” she replied cautiously but held up a hand when Carter tried to interrupt her. “I don’t know that it will work and the last person you want to test new drugs on is a pregnant woman.”
“That’s fine, I think I’d rather you make sure it works first anyways,” Skye said calmly but Carter sighed frustrated.
“So, when are you going to give it to her?” he snapped but smacked his arm.
“She’s doing the best she can, give it a rest,” she scolded him. He would have been irritated if he wasn’t so pleased with her attitude. He gave her a look just because and then turned back to the Doctor waiting for a response.
“I figured we’d give it 18 hours and see what happened,” Dr. Shannon said with a small smile. She seemed pleased to see the shift in Skye as well and spoke to her directly. “If Commander Taylor has improved and things look good, then I’ll administer a dose to you, smaller of course, because I want to monitor you more closely.”
“That sounds fine, I’m not going anywhere, obviously.” Skye shrugged.
“One more thing,” she said. “We’re going to release your mother today, she’s doing remarkably well, no need for her to be cooped up here.”
“Releasing her where?” Carter asked concerned.
“Jim’s found a house,” she explained. “They’re gathering up some furnishings, since the portal closed, we’ve had to become a little more creative about the interiors of new homes, I mean, there was a warehouse full of appliances and some furniture and such, but it’s not all the same things as when we had constant contact with the future. Some of it is older, some things people have built, anyways, you showed up at a convenient time. The construction group only builds when they have need to, but there’s been a bit of a flood of newlyweds, meaning new homes and they usually build one or two extra. In this case, there’s just the one extra, so you’ll all have to stay there, hope that’s alright.”
Skye looked at Carter but he didn’t know what to say so he just nodded. “Thank you,” Skye told Dr. Shannon. “Thank you so much, I didn’t, I guess even though you’d suggested we stay, I just didn’t know that anyone would welcome us back here.”
“Of course you’re welcome here,” she replied easily. “Now, try to rest and I’ll see you when we’re ready to give you some new meds, hm?”
Skye smiled and Dr. Shannon headed for the door, but Carter spoke just before she exited, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” she said without turning as she left.
“That was rather sincere of you,” Skye teased as they leaned back to sleep.
“I can be sincere, don’t act like you’re surprised.” He pulled her into his arms and she rested her head on his chest.
“Oh, now you’re predictable?” She giggled.
“Shut up and go to sleep, doctor’s orders,” he mocked.
Five Months Later
The crying, he didn’t really think about all the crying. He’d considered the sleepless nights, the shit, the puke, the piss (he’d been pissed on at least twice and he didn’t enjoy it,) the helplessness of something so tiny, and yes, vaguely in passing he’d realized there would be crying, but dammit, the kid had a set of lungs and he used them. At all hours. Without reason. Without need. His son liked to cry.
“It’s your turn,” Skye said as she rolled over to face him in bed. She didn’t open her eyes, just swatted at him.
“No, not even a little,” Carter said his voice rough with sleep. “It’s still your turn.”
“Still my turn? I got him not half an hour ago, how is it my turn?” she whined.
“A turn lasts for an hour, if Junior wakes up multiple times in an hour, that counts as your turn,” he said as the baby continued to scream in the other room.
“Then my hour is already over,” she said ripping the covers from him as she turned away from him leaving him with goose bumps and scurrying closer to her to retrieve the blanket.
“The hour started at the first pick up, that was 30 minutes ago, you said so yourself.” He pulled some of the blanket from her, but she held on tight and he was left with very little to cover himself with.
“Go fuck yourself,” she threw over her shoulder.
“Such a dirty mouth, do you kiss our son with that mouth?” he teased. Skye didn’t find it amusing though, she turned back to face him and finally opened her eyes to glare at him.
Just as Skye started to open her mouth, the door opened and a very grumpy Deb blinded them with light from the hallway and a still screaming baby.
“I’m looking for a new place to live.” She walked to the bed, held out the baby, and waited for one of them to take him. Both turned to look at each other again, about to argue, but Deb leaned over Skye and laid the baby in between them on the mattress. “The earplugs are going in, goodnight.” She turned on her heel and walked out, practically slamming the door shut.
“I think we made her mad,” Skye said obviously.
“You think?” Carter replied smartly, speaking a bit louder because of the still crying infant. “You fed him, right?”
Skye rolled her eyes at him. “And changed him and burped him and sang to him. He obviously isn’t tired. But I am!”
“Okay, okay,” he said reaching for the baby. “Let’s go for a walk, alright Junior?”
“Stop calling him Junior,” she demanded. “His name is Alex!”
“Right, for your father, that makes him a junior,” he replied with a grin. Skye sighed, this was a losing battle; he wasn’t sure why she still fought it. “We’ll be outside.”
“No, Carter, he’ll wake the whole colony,” she said pleadingly. “We’re already the talk of the town, like we need one more reason for people to stare.”
“People are only staring because we’re so damned attractive.” He dodged a pillow and opened the door. “Say ‘night’ to momma, Junior.” Skye just groaned and pulled the blanket up over her head.
The baby cried still, even as Carter made his way through the house he thought was too plush just months ago. Now it felt like home. Of course, it helped that they’d acquired a shit ton of stuff. He opened the back door and felt the cool breeze of the night, well, early morning, air. Alex whined a minute but once fully outside, he calmed down.
“You know, I was just sure you needed to live in Terra Nova, not in a tree house,” he said to the baby nestled against his bare chest. “But you gotta go and make me feel like an idiot, you love being outside, you little snot.” Carter said. He made himself comfortable on the lawn chair in the yard. “I mean, sure, your mom needed to stay here to get better and your grandma sure as hell wasn’t going back, but here you are not even two months old making your old man feel stupid. At least here we’ve got a comfy chair outside. Camp wasn’t really heavy on the luxuries like comfy chairs. You probably wouldn’t have liked the place, for one thing, we would have already been tossed out of camp because of your screaming.”
The baby sighed against his chest and settled down to sleep; Carter rubbed his back and closed his own eyes. “The kind of dinosaurs you would attract with that noise, they’d come from miles,” he said lazily before drifting off to sleep himself.
“Hey, Baby Whisperer,” Skye said quietly so as not to wake the baby. It was late morning, he could tell by the sun, and Skye gestured for him to scoot over before she wedged herself onto the chair next to him, her head against his shoulder. “Why does he like it outside?”
“He’s trying to piss me off,” Carter said with a chuckle. “Here I thought I’d be the big man and stay here and now he’s trying to tell me a tree house would have been just fine.”
“You want to go back?” she asked with a smile. But he shook his head.
“Hell no, I’ve gotten really attached to hot water and clean clothes again.”
“Spoiled,” she replied rolling her eyes.
“Well, I also like that you’re healthy, that wouldn’t have happened out there,” he said tilting his head in the direction of the fence that lay just beyond their yard. “And Mira would hate this kid.” The baby in question sneezed and smacked his lips before resuming his peaceful rest. “I mean, look at him, he’s ugly, he’s loud, and he shits on everything.”
“Shut up,” Skye scolded him as she ran her fingers softly over the baby’s head. “He’s not ugly, except when he makes that face, because he got that face from you.”
“Maybe we should let him sleep with the windows open, I mean, I don’t mind sleeping out here, but I’d occasionally like to sleep in the same bed with you,” he said honestly. Skye blushed and his brow furrowed. “Did you just blush?” She covered her face and giggled. “I didn’t know I could do that anymore, make you blush, I mean.”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” she replied before kissing him lightly. “I made breakfast, and we’ve got things to do today, so you’re going to have to get up. I’ll take Jun-” Skye stopped and looked at Carter shocked. “Alex, I meant Alex, oh Jesus Christ, this is all your fault.”
Carter smiled wickedly and tried very hard not to laugh because he knew it would wake the sleeping baby. “I win.”
“Jackass,” she said shaking her head.
Character/Pairing: Skye x Carter
Word Count: 9223
Genre: angst/romance
Rating: (G-NC-17) R
Warning: violence, sexual situations, trigger warning for discussion of rape
Spoiler Alert: If you've seen the show, you're good.
Summary: A year after the portal is destroyed, Skye is still being stalked by Lucas and Carter has vowed to kill him. It's the big finish guys! There's quite a bit of angsty here along with a final fight. Plus a fluffy well, as fluffy as these two can be, flash forward with bb. awwwww.
Author’s Notes: I absolutely must thank Stefanny for bugging me about this fic because it never would have been finished without her. Kay for the original prompt even though I may have cursed her at times. XD Also my loves Ali and Megan who really aren't even in this fandom but helped me immensely with story and fight scenes (because omg those fight scenes are difficult!) And of course, thanks to everyone who took time to read. I was very sure this story was just something Stef would read so to know that someone else likes it, that makes me giddy. :) As per usual, I do not have a true beta so if you catch any grammatical errors, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
When morning rolled around he was happy to see Skye was in a better mood. She smiled as she kissed his chest and ran a hand down him. “You have an appointment with Dr. Shannon today,” he said grabbing her hand as it went for his pants. “As much as I’d love to take advantage of the mood you’re in, I need you to talk to her today. Are you going to be okay talking to her?”
“No,” she said seriously but his concerned face must have propelled her forward. “I don’t want to, but she’s right, I need to. I’m a mess emotionally and if that’s the only thing I can fix and have some control over, well, at least I can do that for myself.”
“Do you want me here? When you talk to her?” he asked cautiously. He didn’t really want to be around for it, but if she wanted him, nothing could make him leave her, even his churning stomach. She shook her head, though.
“God no,” she said quickly. “The last person I want around is you.” He narrowed his eyes and she smiled humorlessly. “You told Jim Shannon you wouldn’t kill Lucas. If you sit here with me, all you’re going to want to do is rip his throat out. I want to kill him and I haven’t even…” she stalled, biting her lip. “It’s just not something you should sit through.”
He kissed her forehead softly. “What about your mom?”
“No, I don’t,” again she paused. “Just Dr. Shannon. I’ll be alright.”
“It’s okay if you want someone here, your mom would at least be less likely to go on a killing spree.” He was glad to see her smile at the joke but again she shook her head.
“I’ll be fine.”
After breakfast, Dr. Shannon came in. “Are you doing alright this morning?”
“As well as I can be.” Skye pulled her hair back into a ponytail as Carter cleaned up around the bed and helped her get comfortable before offering the chair to Dr. Shannon.
“I’m going to go, I’ll be…” he shrugged his shoulders because he didn’t really know here he’d be. “I’ll be around.” She grabbed his hand and he leaned over her to kiss her. “I can stay, if you need me to,” he whispered as he leaned his forehead against hers, she shook her head again.
“No, I’m alright. Just…”
“This doesn’t change anything about you or us,” he whispered. “I don’t care about whatever happened. I don’t think less of you and you are strong enough to handle this. You’re better than him and he doesn’t control any part of you.” She nodded and he saw her resolve strengthen. She wiped a tear from her eye and swallowed.
“Don’t get into trouble.”
“Me? I never find trouble?” he joked and she rolled her eyes.
He stood outside the room a minute. The door wasn’t quite closed and he couldn’t stop himself from listening.
“Where do you want to start?” Dr. Shannon asked.
“Might as well start when he took me,” she answered. “It was cold and Greta was sick. I’d gone to help her since Carter was gone. He was out hunting. There had been a pack of carnos that were testing the limits of the camp at night. He’d been gone a few days actually.” He heard Skye take a deep breath and continue. “I checked on my mom, then I went back to our room. I guess if I’d stayed with my mom that night, instead of going back…”
“Don’t second guess yourself, Skye, it won’t help,” Dr. Shannon said sincerely.
“Anyways, I walked into the room and it was dark, he was in the shadows, I just remember the creepy smile, all teeth, worse than a dinosaur.”
She started to cry and Carter knew he needed to stop listening. It was just making him angry. Pushing away from the door, he swiftly headed for the exit, but he bumped square into Reynolds.
“Damn, Straight-laced, look where you’re walking, will ya?” He pushed against Reynolds’ shoulder but the soldier refused to budge.
“Stop being such a bastard and do the same,” he retorted. Carter’s fists clenched and he swallowed a growl.
“The mood I’m in right now, I will hit you and you will hurt, just fucking move.” A woman holding a child gasped at the scene and presumably the language. Reynolds apologized like the pussy he was but Carter just continued towards the door.
“You going to run around the colony cursing and pushing people over?” Reynolds followed him out the hospital and down the stairs. “Because I can’t let you do that.”
“Did Shannon tell you I needed to be followed? I bought off on his idiotic and cruel plan so I won’t be trying to kill Lucas today, I don’t need a chaperone or a guard.” Carter bitched over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.
“Where do you get off being such an ass hat?” Reynolds caught up with him. Carter stopped and turned to face him, his hands itching to hit. If they were in his territory, in his camp, this would never happen. On the rare chance anyone tried to mouth off to him, they were on the ground before the insult was fully formed. He pressed his lips together tightly and clenched his fists again, glaring and slowly shaking his head.
“Since I can’t hit Lucas, I’m more than willing to take out all this aggression on you, Straight-laced, you might want to keep moving so I don’t,” he spoke low and slowly, his jaw tense. But Reynolds seemed to be encouraged by the threats.
“Like you could even bruise me,” he said arrogantly. “But I tell you what, let’s go find out, I’ve got time to kill and I’m sure there are plenty of guys in the gym that want to watch someone get their ass kicked.”
“Fine, but I hope you don’t mind when I beat you in front of your men, because I will.” Reynolds laughed without humor and Carter shook his head. This was going to be fun.
Reynolds led the way to a gym that held punching bags, climbing ropes, weight machines, treadmills and all the sorts of things that Carter remembered from junior high. He bet they played dodge ball on the weekends, too.
Carter followed as he was led into an area clearly meant for sparring. He rolled his shoulders and moved his head back and forth a minute while Reynolds emptied his pockets.
Standing in the middle of the area, Carter was ready, the adrenaline started to pump and soon enough, Reynolds was lunging towards him. He blocked two attempts easily and rolled his eyes. “Who taught you how to hit, your girlfriend?”
Carter easily landed a punch on the other man’s jaw as he was distracted by the trash talk. He shook his head to clear it and glared. “Mock all you want but she can hit harder than you.”
With a chuckle and a raised eyebrow, Carter nodded. “Is that so? Guess that might be true, I’m more of a legs man.” He kicked out but Reynolds caught his foot and twisted, Carter took advantage of the momentum and flipped his whole body, barely pushing a kick against Reynolds’ chest and landed on two feet easily. “Wait, I know who taught you to fight.”
The soldier rubbed at his chest where Carter’s foot had made contact and threw him a look. “Lieutenant Washington, and if you say one word against her I’ll let all these guys watching jump your ass.”
Carter threw up his arms. “Wasn’t gonna, that woman could fight, she bested me once, if I’d had another chance, I’d have gotten her, but I won’t lie, I was bruised after she and I scuffled.”
Reynolds ducked low and came at him swiftly, grabbing at his legs and tossing him over. He rolled quickly to right himself and smirked at the younger man. “That’s all you got, Straight-laced? I could do this shit in my sleep.”
At that, Reynolds kicked his own foot but Carter blocked it with his forearm. “Carter,” Jim Shannon hollered from the other end of the gym. Carter turned his head a half second to glance at Shannon and when he turned back the soldier was right in front of him, he knocked his forehead against Carter’s and he landed on the floor.
“Will the two of you break it up for a minute, geez,” the Sherriff said as he walked to the two men. Reynolds offered Carter a hand and a smirk. He took the hand and shook his head but he was impressed by the kid, he hadn’t expected the head butt. As Shannon stood in front of them, Reynolds’ countenance instantly shifted from cocky to nervous hamster and Carter side eyed him confused until he cottoned on.
“Oh, right, you’re fucking his daughter.”
Both men glared at Carter and Jim spoke slowly. “Never use any combination of those words together in front of me.”
Carter shrugged unbothered by the harsh tone. “I’m not fucking your daughter…Ow, Straight-laced,” he said perturbed after Reynolds smacked his chest with the back of his hand.
“We’re going to go ahead this afternoon,” Jim said changing the subject. “We’ve got the information we need.”
Even though he knew it was a possibility, the truth that Lucas raped Skye still slammed hard into him making Reynolds’ smack seem like a friendly cuddle. His body tensed and his stomach rolled but he did his best to keep his face stoic.
“She’s asking for you,” Jim said watching him intently.
Carter didn’t bother saying anything. What would he have said? He just ran.
By the time he was coming up on their room in the hospital his lungs burned and he had to take a moment to compose himself outside the door. Again, keeping his stoic face, he entered slowly.
Inside, he saw that Deb was sitting in the chair that Dr. Shannon had previously occupied. She held Skye’s hand and smiled when he came to sit on the foot of the bed. “Alright sweetie, I’m going to go, I’ll come by in a bit to sit with you some more,” Deb said as she stood. “Someone just dropped a plex on my bed and you know, there’s the most wonderful book on it, I’ll come by and read it with you. You’ll love it. I know for sure.”
Deb placed a kiss on Skye’s forehead and then squeezed Carter’s arm as she turned to go. He nodded and turned back to Skye. Crawling up the bed, he took her in his arms and held her. She didn’t speak for a few minutes and he didn’t mind. He stroked her hair and waited.
“You smell.” He felt the words against his chest and chuckled. “Did you get into trouble?”
“Nah,” he replied, his lips against her forehead as he spoke. “That soldier, the one that is going to marry the Shannon girl, he and I did a couple of rounds of sparring.”
“Oh God,” she said dramatically. “You didn’t break him, did you? Maddy will be pissed if you broke Mark.”
“Actually no, the kid isn’t terrible at it. He got in a good head butt.” He moved his hand up and down her arm soothingly and he felt her relax in his arms. “Do you feel any better? Worse? Different?”
Glad that she didn’t tense again, he waited for her to speak. “I dunno, I feel…raw.”
“I’m sorry,” he said feeling guilty. He wasn’t sure he’d ever stop feeling guilty over the fact he wasn’t there, he couldn’t stop it, even when Lucas was dead, Carter imagined he’d still feel inadequate.
“If it’s not my fault, it’s certainly not yours,” Skye said strongly, but Carter just shrugged. She paused again and he thought maybe that was all she’d say about it, but she started again and her words cut through him. “The things he did to me…I don’t know why you want me.”
“Hey, I will always want you.” He lifted her chin so he could look her in the eyes. “Whatever he did, whatever happened to you, it doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you.” The tears formed in her eyes, but she didn’t cry. “It is okay to cry, you know,” he said but she shook her head.
“I’m tired of it. My eyes are sore and I don’t want to do it anymore.” She was firm and he couldn’t help the fact that he was proud. Certain parts of her were still hurt or sick or not quite put together properly, like a puzzle with a piece askew, but he could see it was changing. Being here, talking to people, having her mother well, these little things were causing a shift in Skye.
“Okay.”
“You really stink,” she said after a few more minutes of silence.
“Princess, I’m offended. You don’t like my man musk?” he teased and she laughed.
“Please never say that again.”
“What? Man musk?” he repeated doing the opposite of what she’d asked.
“Yeah, stop calling it that,” Skye replied smiling. “It’s funny though, we’ve been here and all showered and clean like normal people, I almost forgot.”
“You forgot that we get stinky and don’t just have running water? Spoiled.”
“I know, I know.” She held a hand over her eyes in embarrassment. He moved it and kissed her softly.
“We should stay here,” he said when pulled away from her lips. Her eyes grew wide and he chuckled. “Your eyeballs are going to dry out like that.”
“Shut up,” she said as she rolled her eyes. “You don’t want to stay. You hate it here.”
“But it’s not about me,” he said running his fingers along her jaw line. “We did it my way and it made you sick,” at that she tried to speak but he covered her mouth. “And stinky, poor Princess didn’t have running water or air conditioning.” Skye bit one of the fingers that covered her mouth but Carter didn’t remove his hand, just gave her a wolfish grin. “Don’t bite if you can’t follow through, baby.”
She pushed his hand away and shook her head. “Jackass,” she mumbled before returning to the more serious conversation. “We don’t have to stay here, I know you think you don’t belong here.”
“Things change.” He shrugged. “Your mom deserves to stay here, even when you’re better, Dr. Shannon wants to be able to monitor you and the baby and then the baby, he doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the jungle. The gates and the steady stream of food, those two things alone are things I can’t provide for us easily if we go back.”
“But…” she tried but even she knew his arguments were solid though it meant a lot to him that she was concerned about his reaction. “You’ll go stir crazy and you hate Taylor.”
“Well, Dr. Shannon already offered me a job.”
“The last place you’d want to work is here, in a building all day long,” she said with narrowed eyes.
“Not here,” he explained. “They need a combat medic, since Washington died they haven’t been able to fill the position. Apparently my little vaccination routine yesterday was better than a job interview.”
“Mira isn’t going to be happy,” Skye offered.
“She won’t even miss me.” He looked up at the wall. That might have been a lie, but he didn’t really care. Mira was not his concern, taking care of his family was. “Besides, Taylor is on some good drugs, he’s willing to open the colony to anyone from camp if they want to come back.”
“Those are some good drugs, then again, the colony needs people, without the portal, this place could easily die out if they don’t make an effort. Do you think anyone would come back?”
Carter shrugged. “Don’t know, but I’ll take the information to Mira,” he paused and put his hand on her belly. “How’s Junior handling all of this?”
‘We are not naming him Carter Jr.”
“You’re right, a better name would be Olaf,” he said with a grin. She shook her head.
“I pity this child,” she said before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep in his arms. He picked up the plex on the table and flipped through more of the medical texts. Might as well brush up on any new information.
After a few hours, Jim knocked on the door. Carter got up and tucked the blanket around a still sleeping Skye. His hair stood on end when he thought about what he was about to do, but Jim was right, this might be the only way. He brushed some hair off her forehead and walked out the door. Jim nodded at him but both men stayed silent. Walking out, he waved at Deb, she didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t stupid, he figured she might have an idea, especially with the sober faces he and Jim made. She grabbed a plex and headed back to Skye’s room.
Before they walked into the cell in the brig, Jim finally spoke. “I’m going to let you hit him a couple of times, because I don’t think he’ll buy it if I don’t.” Carter bit the inside of his cheek and Jim continued, “but can you stick to his gut? If you knock out his teeth, its going to be tricky for him to tell us anything don’t you think?”
“Fine,” he agreed.
“You know what you’re going to say?” Jim asked. “You ready?”
“Not really a thing you’re ever ready for,” Carter said shortly. Jim gave him a sympathetic look but Carter brushed him off and took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
When they walked in the door, Lucas didn’t even raise his head. He was seated, hands restrained in front of him, just staring at the wall.
“You sick mother fucker,” Carter yelled. He walked over to Lucas, lifted him up roughly by the arm, and hit him solidly in the belly. Lucas doubled over and Carter pulled him up again. He put his face close to his and glared. Lucas’ face remained blank. “So you can’t get a woman to sleep with you so you steal one away, rape her, and you can’t even give her the common courtesy of protection?”
Lucas grinned until the last part of the sentence sunk in. Carter hit him again, this time in the kidneys. “You knew she didn’t want you so you thought maybe that would convince her?” He pushed Lucas just enough to make him sway. He tried not to think about what he was about to do, he thought back to Skye saying how raw she felt, and that’s when he realized all this time, he’d felt the same way. The whole situation, his whole world for the past six months had stripped him raw.
He leaned close to Lucas’ ear and spoke slowly, “Or maybe it was me, did you think I wouldn’t want her if she was carrying your bastard?” Waiting just a moment for effect, Carter took a step back and bore into Lucas with as much hate as he was feeling. They stood there, Lucas trying not to look caught off guard and Carter menacing and angry. After a minute Carter spoke again.
“So now the question is, are you going to let her die carrying your bastard or are you going to tell us how to fix her? Because her body can’t handle it. She’s gone into preterm labor twice now. She’s going to die if you don’t fix her.”
Lucas stared at his feet. The smug smile gone, Carter could practically see the wheels turning in his head. He glanced at Jim and the older man took it as a signal to begin speaking. “We all know you want your father to suffer, and you have no qualms about killing him, but the way you lost your mother…” he trailed off as he walked toward Lucas. “Do you plan on perpetuating the cycle? You want your own son to live life without a mother?”
“This is a trick,” Lucas whispered, clear he was trying to work it out. “I haven’t seen her since she ran away from me, you’re both lying to me.”
Carter looked to Jim again, and then grabbed Lucas’ shoulders and kneed him in the gut. As Lucas stood hunched over, the wind knocked out of him, Carter spoke again. “I wish this was a game, but it’s not.” The Sheriff held up a plex with some doctored DNA tests and shoved it into Lucas’ restrained hands. “You want to check our math? I always wondered, but it was the first test I asked them to run when I got here.” Carter felt a stab of guilt at the statement, as it was more of a half-truth; he’d at least had the decency to wait until Dr. Shannon had run the other more important tests.
“No, I don’t believe you.” Lucas looked firm, unwavering. “I haven’t made her sick, but I can help her, only if you give her back to me!”
“You’re not going anywhere with her!” Carter said frustrated running his hands through his hair before giving Jim a look. Shaking his head he headed for the door. “Don’t think the Sheriff here can keep you safe,” he threw over his shoulder before pushing the door open and continuing, “I will kill you.”
Before he’d left the building, Shannon was catching up with him. “That’s definitely going to work. ‘Tell me and I’m going to kill you.’ I’m so impressed with your interrogation skills.”
“I told you this plan wasn’t going to work.” Carter stopped and turned to him. “It was a shit plan and all it did was piss me off. Waste of my time, waste of your time. He needs to know that no matter how long he stalls, I will come for him, and you can’t stop me. If I have to bury Skye or our baby I will kill him, but in that instance, it won’t be quick, oh no, he will suffer, he will wish he’d told us every last bit of anything in his head because I will make him beg.”
Something shifted in Shannon because he took a step back and he almost looked surprised. Carter knew he hadn’t scared the man with his vicious speech, but he knew it had thrown the Sheriff. The air was thick in the room and it was now that he noticed there were three soldiers, each with a hand reaching for a sidearm, he took a moment to fix each one of them with a glare before turning and leaving.
A few breaths of chilled night air and Carter realized that people must have assumed he was tamed, no longer the man that came to kill Taylor, no longer the scary boogie man hiding in the trees. The colony was ready to accept he and Skye with open arms and he’d been fine with that, until he saw how quickly that would turn. They would stay, they needed to, if Skye survived, but it wouldn’t be easy to just blend in.
That stream of thought led him to his most disturbing idea: Skye’s death or the baby’s. He hadn’t allowed himself to even broach the subject. Six months ago when Lucas had taken her, it had been two days of pure horror, anger, and frustration. But he’d never thought she would be dead. He knew Lucas’ infatuation with her, Carter knew Lucas wouldn’t kill her, but now, now he wasn’t sure she’d survive. It chipped away at him, but the more awful thought was that the baby wouldn’t live. Skye would never recover. Her emotional health was teetering on the edge, that baby tied her to reality and without it, Carter knew it would take more than counseling sessions with Dr. Shannon to bring her back to her former self, if she ever returned.
The swirling thoughts led him not back to the hospital, but to Boylan’s Bar. “I want three shots of the strongest thing you’ve got hiding back there.”
“And how do you intend to pay for that?” Boylan asked smartly. Carter narrowed his eyes. “I’ll start a tab, you’ll have money coming in soon enough,” he said with a shrug. “Hard day?”
Again, he just stared as Boylan poured the shots. Carter downed one. “How come Taylor never threw you out of the gates for working with us?”
“Well, he put me in the brig for a bit, but that’s quite a long story,” Boylan said refilling the first shot, giving Carter a total of four to toss back. He did it quickly without making a face or commenting on the burning in his throat. He wasn’t really into the idea of feeling anything at the moment. Boylan left him to sit while he helped someone else down the bar.
“You!” someone growled next to Carter. He didn’t turn his head, nor did he care who was bothering him. “My arm still hurts from that shot you gave me.”
Ah, yes, the idiot from the vaccinations. Carter turned to him with a smirk, he clapped the guy on the arm where he knew he’d administered the vaccine. “Still hurts, pal?”
Hernandez was flanked by two other soldiers who looked like they were supposed to be intimidating. Problem was, Carter wasn’t disturbed by them at all. Pursing his lips in thought a moment, he nodded and stood up. “Alright, let’s go. This ought to be fun since you three don’t seem to know your fists from your asses.”
All three soldiers furrowed their brows at the outright insult. Hernandez threw the first punch, but Carter blocked it easily, even in his slightly numb and hazy state. Before another punch was attempted, Reynolds stood in between Carter and the other three soldiers.
“I think you three have duty now, don’t you,” he said with authority. The men floundered a moment before Reynolds gave them a hard look while Carter stood behind him irritated.
“That would have been fun, Straight-laced,” he whined. “I wouldn’t have hurt them too badly.”
Reynolds turned to Carter with an amused look. “I’m sure.” He grabbed Carter’s shoulder and pushed him towards the door of the bar. “The last thing I need is three guys in the hospital, Maddy is already working constantly helping Dr. Wallace on some kind of cure for the Commander and Skye, you’d just be hurting your own cause. If Dr. Shannon is patching those guys up, she’s not spending time in the lab.”
Carter frowned. “But you missed the part where I said it would have been fun.”
“I suppose from your demeanor, Jim’s brilliant plan didn’t work.”
“What do you know about that?” Carter asked annoyed.
“I eat dinner at the Shannon’s house almost every night, including last night, I overheard your visit.” Reynolds kept walking and Carter followed, if anything just to avoid going back to the hospital feeling like a failure.
“It was a shit plan.”
“Then how come you’re drinking and starting fights, you must have thought it would work or you wouldn’t be so pissed it didn’t,” he said and Carter wanted to hit the kid for being perceptive.
“I’m done with all this shit, the Sheriff is cramping my style, Skye is still sick, and I can’t even rip off Lucas’ arms and beat him with them. I’ve looked for months for Lucas. It’s been my god damn mission to drain the life from him and now I’m in the thick of things. He’s within my reach but I can’t do anything about it.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” Reynolds said with raised eyebrows and a knowing look. “I get it, if the bastard had done that to Maddy, I’d be the same. But you can’t just kill him. Then she’ll die.”
“I thought your woman along with half the science staff were all working on some way to help them.”
“They are, and they’re the best, but you know he’s smarter.” Reynolds stopped in front of the hospital.
“You keep up these little feelings sharing sessions and I’m going to think you like me, but just so you know, I don’t swing both ways,” Carter said with a raised eyebrow and Reynolds just rolled his eyes. In the distance, Jim Shannon was jogging towards them, Carter’s brow furrowed and Reynolds turned to see what he was looking at.
“Something happened,” he mumbled but Carter’s eyes never left Shannon as he met up with them.
“He changed his mind,” Jim said excitedly. “It worked, he changed his mind.”
Carter stayed stoic. “Are you sure? Maybe he’s decided to start playing games with us?”
“We won’t know if we don’t go back and talk to him,” Shannon said smartly. “Come on, we’re so close, this is going to work.”
He wanted it to work, but still Carter was skeptical. He followed the Sheriff back to the brig anyways. “Are you sure you can’t do this without me?” he finally asked as they made it to the doors. “I’m over talking to this asshole. If I have to see him, I want to be able to kill him.”
Jim Shannon shook his head. “You need to get over that. It’s more believable with you here and you’re not going to kill him. We need him.”
Carter hated it. He hated that they needed Lucas to tell them how to fix this. He hated that Jim Shannon was more concerned about a cure because it affected the colony and not just Skye. Carter was a selfish person and all he cared about was getting Skye well and whole. But Shannon had to stand for more. He had to worry about the welfare of 1000 people but Carter didn’t care.
On top of that he felt helpless. He couldn’t help Skye, he thought bringing her here was the right thing to do, and though it did seem to improve things, he still couldn’t kill Lucas. He wasn’t allowed to torture the truth out of him. Carter didn’t like working within the rules of this place and it was grating on him. But he followed Shannon into the room anyways. If it might help Skye, he had to.
When they entered the room, Lucas looked them both over, his face impassive.
“I want to see her,” Lucas said and Carter scoffed. “I’ll tell you the way to help her, but I will only tell you part of it, then when I see her, when I know that she’s really pregnant, then I’ll tell you the rest.”
Carter shook his head sharply. “No, you can’t see her. You’ve messed with her head enough.” But Jim put a hand on his shoulder. “Why are we messing with this guy?” he whispered. “He’s insane and I’m not letting him near her.”
“If this is what it takes, we do it,” Jim replied. “She’ll be safe. We’ll be right there.” The Sheriff turned back to Lucas. “You can see her, but you don’t get to talk to her, she’s not even going to know you’re there. He’s right, you’ve done enough damage to her.”
He couldn’t help the scowl on his face and the subsequent look he gave the older man, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He was right, this was still their best chance.
“So, start talking then we can take a walk,” Jim continued.
“It’s a designer virus,” Lucas said with a smirk, clearly proud of himself. “It’s invisible, but it reacts to water and food, depending on the person, each reaction is different.”
“And?” Carter asked with narrowed eyes. It was a long shot, but maybe if he could keep him talking they’d get all the information and not have to take him anywhere.
“And you can hear the fix when I see her.” He wished he could slap the smirk off Lucas’ face.
“Aright, let’s go.” Jim grabbed Lucas by the scruff of his neck and Carter followed.
Carter figured at least Skye would be asleep still. He didn’t want her to even get a glimpse of Lucas. He knew it might undo all the progress she’d made emotionally in just a few short days and that would be the worst outcome of this event. Skye might heal physically, but the idea of starting all over emotionally made him angry.
The hospital was quiet. It was just before shift change so the nurses were all hiding, hoping to avoid any last bits of work before they could leave, there were only a few patients anyways. The lights were low so that patients in the main bay could sleep. It was almost eerie and no one seemed to notice that they’d brought a murderer into the building.
Jim halted Lucas just before Skye’s room and Carter went forward to make sure she was indeed asleep. He opened the door quietly and saw her lying on her side, her eyes closed, and breathing steady. Deb wasn’t there; she must have gone back to her bed. Pulling the blinds up on the door, he wished desperately it were a two-way mirror instead of glass. His heart started to pound and his skin itched as his anger mixed with anxiety. Here we go, he thought to himself.
Carter shut the door and nodded at Jim to bring Lucas forward. Where he felt sick and nervous, Lucas looked delightfully demented. A creepy sneer, bright eyes, and an almost giddy step propelled him forward to the window. His hands pressed against the glass, as did his face, like a child looking through a pet store window.
“I want to get closer,” Lucas said, breath fogging an area on the glass.
Both Jim and Carter said, “No,” though Carter’s was more forceful.
“It’s a boy? You said that, right?” Lucas asked Jim, his voice childlike and full of excitement. It made Carter’s hair stand on end. Jim nodded in response. “My blood,” he said quietly. “That’s how I altered the virus. I put my own DNA in it, it was in a small capsule, genius really, obviously.”
Before Carter or Jim could enjoy the fact that their ploy had worked, several alarms sounded; they were coming from Taylor’s room. Dr. Shannon came out of nowhere and was running into the room. Jim followed her without a glance back to Carter or their maniac prisoner. Carter looked towards the room to see several nurses heading into the room as the alarms continued blaring.
He’d only looked away for a second, but when his eyes were back on Lucas, he’d turned to face Carter and his hands, palms up, rammed into his nose so hard it knocked Carter over. Before he could get up, Lucas had locked himself in Skye’s room. Standing up quickly and trying the door he stood in horror as he watched Lucas stroke Skye’s face, she’d woken, probably from the alarms, and she’d already started crying and screaming. Pushing his elbow through the glass of the door quickly, he reached through and opened the door from the other side, not caring that his arm was bleeding from the glass.
“That’s my baby, we’re going to be a family, and you’ll see Bucket, you’ll love me!” Lucas was saying over Skye as she cried and struggled against him as he held her down with tied hands.
Carter pulled his knife from his waist, the one he’d originally taken days ago to kill Lucas. Coming behind Lucas, he went for his neck, but Lucas caught his wrist and turned the knife towards Skye. Twisting as best he could, Carter tried to bring the knife back to Lucas, but Lucas had two hands on his wrist and Carter was trying not to add weight to Skye since Lucas was still on top of her. He pulled his arm far enough out that he could drop it safely away from Skye’s body and pulled Lucas off her. Both fell to the floor and Lucas managed to get his hands around Carter’s neck.
Carter pushed against him, then began clawing at the hands around his neck as his field of vision started to narrow and his lungs burned from lack of oxygen. He realized it was embarrassing, being bested by Lucas like this, and the fact that he was leaving Skye unprotected, he just hoped that Jim Shannon would come to the rescue before Lucas could touch Skye and the baby.
He’d spent all his time protecting them and now he’d failed. His life wasn’t flashing before his eyes. Their lives were. The coy smiles she gave him when he’d kissed her thoroughly, her eyes as she cried, the chances he’d miss. Holding his son, watching him grow and watching Skye recover and become herself again: the woman who didn’t take his shit, the independent one who pushed back. At least they’d be here in Terra Nova, safe.
But just as he had those thoughts, he saw Lucas’ eyes go wide and felt his hands go slack.
Taking in rough breaths, Carter saw Skye plunging the knife into Lucas’ back, over and over again. As carefully as he could, he moved from his spot on the floor and sat up slowly. Skye was still stabbing at an obviously lifeless Lucas with tears streaming down her face.
He made out the words “I hate you!” but mostly it was just incoherent cries, like that of an injured animal. He let her continue until his own breathing had returned to normal and then he carefully approached her. She was kneeling so he scooted himself over to her.
“Princess.” The knife still went in and out of Lucas’ back as though she didn’t hear him. “Skye,” he said a little louder. She turned quickly, her face covered in tears and splatters of Lucas’ blood, her eyes wild. He waited for the moment when she’d return to reality and was relieved when he saw the recognition light in her. She dropped the knife and hiccupping and crying, she fell into his open arms.
“It’s over now,” he said hoping the words soothed her. Before he’d been worried about how she’d handle seeing him, now he didn’t know what the effects of the encounter would be, but Carter hoped that Skye killing Lucas might be a sort of detachment, closure. Maybe now she could take control and feel stronger now. “You saved yourself. You did that and now it’s over.”
The crying didn’t abate; instead, it became louder. Skye looked up at him with panic in her eyes. “Oh God, it hurts,” she said between sobs.
Carter realized it could be any number of things: Lucas had been on top of her, he himself had dropped a knife out of the way of her, but he could have missed, she might have hurt herself with the physical force it took to stab a man as many times as she just had.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” he asked concerned but she just continued crying. As though on cue, Dr. Shannon came into the room and stopped abruptly at the sight of Lucas’ body.
“You need to look at her, she’s in pain,” Carter said craning his head to see the doctor behind him.
“We need to get her up so I can examine her,” she replied looking away from the body on the floor. He picked her up with some effort, the tingles in his arm reminded him he’d probably cut it on the glass badly enough to require stitches or at least some glue. “I’ll ask you what happened later, I suppose.” Elisabeth added when he’d gotten Skye on the bed.
He shrugged and as the doctor examined Skye, Carter held her hand and wiped the tears and blood from her face. “It’s the baby again, isn’t it?” he asked the doctor but directed the question at Skye. She nodded and Dr. Shannon sighed.
“Her blood pressure is through the roof as is her heart rate, she’s going into shock.” Dr. Shannon looked at the monitors again. “We may need to sedate her, I don’t think medication is going to stop this if her body can’t relax.”
Skye shook her head furiously and tried to speak through her tears. “Don’t, please don’t sedate me, I don’t…I don’t want to feel like that…”
Carter looked to the doctor concerned then back to Skye. “You need to calm down, then, deep breaths, think about boring things, I dunno, rainbows and puppies and shit.” She narrowed her eyes at him and he tried to smile. “I’m not the best person to calm someone down, okay? I enjoy riling people up.” Skye began taking deep breaths and Carter bent over her belly. “Listen kid, we are not ready for you yet, okay? I know things seem exciting out here, but they aren’t, trust me, it’s a snore. Your momma needs to stop being sick and that would be a lot easier for her if you just stayed put, alright, Junior?”
The pep talk had its desired affect as Skye tried not to laugh and her tears slowed. “We’re not naming him Junior, I don’t care how much you push it.” He smiled and she shook her head.
“See, that’s one more reason not to make a break for it, kid, we’ll just end up calling you ‘kid’ for a few months until we can decide on the inevitable.”
“It’s not inevitable,” Skye groaned in between her breathes.
“Alright,” Dr. Shannon interrupted. “Keep breathing deeply for me, okay? I’m going to give you something that will hopefully stop the labor again, but you need to keep your heart rate down. You have to stay calm.”
“And then you need to start working on the antidote,” Carter said suddenly remembering. When the doctor looked confused, he tilted his head towards the body on the floor. “He told us it was in his blood, a designer virus meant to react to food and water.”
At that revelation Dr. Shannon called for a nurse. “Get that out of here,” she said in reference to Lucas’ body. “Take 10 vials of blood, as well, and send it right over to the lab.”
“Carter,” Jim Shannon called from the doorway.
“Go get her mom and then I’ll talk to you,” he said not even looking at the perturbed man. Carter continued to stand by Skye, calming her as best he could and when Deb came he was relieved. “You’re probably better at this anyways,” he said in passing to Deb. He turned to Skye before he left to assure he wasn’t going far.
“What the hell happened?” Shannon asked when Carter met him outside the room.
“You tell me,” Carter snapped losing the relaxed demeanor he’d put on for Skye. “You went chasing after your fearless leader and his health and when I turned back to Lucas he popped me in the nose hard enough to knock me over and lock himself in their with her,” he said angry.
The Sheriff had the sense to soften his stance. “So you killed him?”
“No.” Shannon looked confused before he figured it out. “That explains why his back looks like ground beef. Why didn’t you stop her, she must have stabbed him more than 10 times.”
“I was trying to catch my breath, the bastard tried to strangle me,” Carter explained rubbing his neck at the memory. “I finally pulled her off him, but it was a delicate situation, I didn’t want her coming at me with that knife, she was hysterical.”
“Well, I guess there’s nothing to be done about it, now.”
“You think?” he bit out. “Taylor survive?”
“He coded but Elisabeth brought him back, she needs to get to work on that cure, I don’t think Taylor will last much longer without it,” he said.
“Hopefully that’s it and all will be well soon.” Carter looked back to the room. “I’m going back in there.”
Jim nodded and Carter gave him a final look before going to sit next to Skye. She was better, her vitals were normal, her contractions had stopped and he thanked the doctor and every deity he could think of that this battle seemed to be over.
Someone was poking Carter awake. He hated to be poked awake, but if someone was poking him, that meant it was Skye. She knew how much he hated it and did it anyways. Poke, poke, poke right on his chest. His brow furrowed and he growled, “You wanna keep that finger, Princess?”
“Ha, like you’d do anything,” Skye teased. “Open your eyes doofus, Dr. Shannon has good news.”
At that he did open his eyes. “What time is it?”
“It’s 5:30, but I thought you’d want to hear this,” Dr. Shannon said from the foot of the bed. “We’ve manufactured something we think is going to work.”
Carter sat up and smiled wide at Skye who returned the smile and then he turned back to the doctor. “Well, you going to give it to her or what?”
“We’re going to give it to Commander Taylor first,” she replied cautiously but held up a hand when Carter tried to interrupt her. “I don’t know that it will work and the last person you want to test new drugs on is a pregnant woman.”
“That’s fine, I think I’d rather you make sure it works first anyways,” Skye said calmly but Carter sighed frustrated.
“So, when are you going to give it to her?” he snapped but smacked his arm.
“She’s doing the best she can, give it a rest,” she scolded him. He would have been irritated if he wasn’t so pleased with her attitude. He gave her a look just because and then turned back to the Doctor waiting for a response.
“I figured we’d give it 18 hours and see what happened,” Dr. Shannon said with a small smile. She seemed pleased to see the shift in Skye as well and spoke to her directly. “If Commander Taylor has improved and things look good, then I’ll administer a dose to you, smaller of course, because I want to monitor you more closely.”
“That sounds fine, I’m not going anywhere, obviously.” Skye shrugged.
“One more thing,” she said. “We’re going to release your mother today, she’s doing remarkably well, no need for her to be cooped up here.”
“Releasing her where?” Carter asked concerned.
“Jim’s found a house,” she explained. “They’re gathering up some furnishings, since the portal closed, we’ve had to become a little more creative about the interiors of new homes, I mean, there was a warehouse full of appliances and some furniture and such, but it’s not all the same things as when we had constant contact with the future. Some of it is older, some things people have built, anyways, you showed up at a convenient time. The construction group only builds when they have need to, but there’s been a bit of a flood of newlyweds, meaning new homes and they usually build one or two extra. In this case, there’s just the one extra, so you’ll all have to stay there, hope that’s alright.”
Skye looked at Carter but he didn’t know what to say so he just nodded. “Thank you,” Skye told Dr. Shannon. “Thank you so much, I didn’t, I guess even though you’d suggested we stay, I just didn’t know that anyone would welcome us back here.”
“Of course you’re welcome here,” she replied easily. “Now, try to rest and I’ll see you when we’re ready to give you some new meds, hm?”
Skye smiled and Dr. Shannon headed for the door, but Carter spoke just before she exited, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” she said without turning as she left.
“That was rather sincere of you,” Skye teased as they leaned back to sleep.
“I can be sincere, don’t act like you’re surprised.” He pulled her into his arms and she rested her head on his chest.
“Oh, now you’re predictable?” She giggled.
“Shut up and go to sleep, doctor’s orders,” he mocked.
Five Months Later
The crying, he didn’t really think about all the crying. He’d considered the sleepless nights, the shit, the puke, the piss (he’d been pissed on at least twice and he didn’t enjoy it,) the helplessness of something so tiny, and yes, vaguely in passing he’d realized there would be crying, but dammit, the kid had a set of lungs and he used them. At all hours. Without reason. Without need. His son liked to cry.
“It’s your turn,” Skye said as she rolled over to face him in bed. She didn’t open her eyes, just swatted at him.
“No, not even a little,” Carter said his voice rough with sleep. “It’s still your turn.”
“Still my turn? I got him not half an hour ago, how is it my turn?” she whined.
“A turn lasts for an hour, if Junior wakes up multiple times in an hour, that counts as your turn,” he said as the baby continued to scream in the other room.
“Then my hour is already over,” she said ripping the covers from him as she turned away from him leaving him with goose bumps and scurrying closer to her to retrieve the blanket.
“The hour started at the first pick up, that was 30 minutes ago, you said so yourself.” He pulled some of the blanket from her, but she held on tight and he was left with very little to cover himself with.
“Go fuck yourself,” she threw over her shoulder.
“Such a dirty mouth, do you kiss our son with that mouth?” he teased. Skye didn’t find it amusing though, she turned back to face him and finally opened her eyes to glare at him.
Just as Skye started to open her mouth, the door opened and a very grumpy Deb blinded them with light from the hallway and a still screaming baby.
“I’m looking for a new place to live.” She walked to the bed, held out the baby, and waited for one of them to take him. Both turned to look at each other again, about to argue, but Deb leaned over Skye and laid the baby in between them on the mattress. “The earplugs are going in, goodnight.” She turned on her heel and walked out, practically slamming the door shut.
“I think we made her mad,” Skye said obviously.
“You think?” Carter replied smartly, speaking a bit louder because of the still crying infant. “You fed him, right?”
Skye rolled her eyes at him. “And changed him and burped him and sang to him. He obviously isn’t tired. But I am!”
“Okay, okay,” he said reaching for the baby. “Let’s go for a walk, alright Junior?”
“Stop calling him Junior,” she demanded. “His name is Alex!”
“Right, for your father, that makes him a junior,” he replied with a grin. Skye sighed, this was a losing battle; he wasn’t sure why she still fought it. “We’ll be outside.”
“No, Carter, he’ll wake the whole colony,” she said pleadingly. “We’re already the talk of the town, like we need one more reason for people to stare.”
“People are only staring because we’re so damned attractive.” He dodged a pillow and opened the door. “Say ‘night’ to momma, Junior.” Skye just groaned and pulled the blanket up over her head.
The baby cried still, even as Carter made his way through the house he thought was too plush just months ago. Now it felt like home. Of course, it helped that they’d acquired a shit ton of stuff. He opened the back door and felt the cool breeze of the night, well, early morning, air. Alex whined a minute but once fully outside, he calmed down.
“You know, I was just sure you needed to live in Terra Nova, not in a tree house,” he said to the baby nestled against his bare chest. “But you gotta go and make me feel like an idiot, you love being outside, you little snot.” Carter said. He made himself comfortable on the lawn chair in the yard. “I mean, sure, your mom needed to stay here to get better and your grandma sure as hell wasn’t going back, but here you are not even two months old making your old man feel stupid. At least here we’ve got a comfy chair outside. Camp wasn’t really heavy on the luxuries like comfy chairs. You probably wouldn’t have liked the place, for one thing, we would have already been tossed out of camp because of your screaming.”
The baby sighed against his chest and settled down to sleep; Carter rubbed his back and closed his own eyes. “The kind of dinosaurs you would attract with that noise, they’d come from miles,” he said lazily before drifting off to sleep himself.
“Hey, Baby Whisperer,” Skye said quietly so as not to wake the baby. It was late morning, he could tell by the sun, and Skye gestured for him to scoot over before she wedged herself onto the chair next to him, her head against his shoulder. “Why does he like it outside?”
“He’s trying to piss me off,” Carter said with a chuckle. “Here I thought I’d be the big man and stay here and now he’s trying to tell me a tree house would have been just fine.”
“You want to go back?” she asked with a smile. But he shook his head.
“Hell no, I’ve gotten really attached to hot water and clean clothes again.”
“Spoiled,” she replied rolling her eyes.
“Well, I also like that you’re healthy, that wouldn’t have happened out there,” he said tilting his head in the direction of the fence that lay just beyond their yard. “And Mira would hate this kid.” The baby in question sneezed and smacked his lips before resuming his peaceful rest. “I mean, look at him, he’s ugly, he’s loud, and he shits on everything.”
“Shut up,” Skye scolded him as she ran her fingers softly over the baby’s head. “He’s not ugly, except when he makes that face, because he got that face from you.”
“Maybe we should let him sleep with the windows open, I mean, I don’t mind sleeping out here, but I’d occasionally like to sleep in the same bed with you,” he said honestly. Skye blushed and his brow furrowed. “Did you just blush?” She covered her face and giggled. “I didn’t know I could do that anymore, make you blush, I mean.”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” she replied before kissing him lightly. “I made breakfast, and we’ve got things to do today, so you’re going to have to get up. I’ll take Jun-” Skye stopped and looked at Carter shocked. “Alex, I meant Alex, oh Jesus Christ, this is all your fault.”
Carter smiled wickedly and tried very hard not to laugh because he knew it would wake the sleeping baby. “I win.”
“Jackass,” she said shaking her head.